Deception

Rating: T

Summery: The story of how Sharon found out about March Hare's powers, long before the party at Isla Yura's. AU.

Characters/Pairings: Liam and Sharon

Comments: All this got started by an offhand comment Sharon makes in Retrace 49 to Oz about Liam would made it sort of sound like she knew what the March Hare's power was (through now that I reread it Sharon really vaguely implied it). So that got me to thinking how exactly Sharon would have come to find that out.

Sharon's arm was shaking; she could barely hold it steady. The metal of the gun was very cold through her glove and she was terrified that any moment her fingers would just refuse to stay closed over it and that the gun would plummet to the ground.

"It's alright." Liam said. His voice was calm, level, there was even a slight smile on his face as he stood twenty paces away with a bandit on either side of him. "Keep your arm steady and aim carefully, Miss Sharon. It will be alright."

"I-I can't." she whispered, her lips were numb. "I just c-can't."

The bandit leader, who was next to her laughed and leaned down to speak in her ear, his breath hot and foul. "Looks like ye can't do it. Such a shame. I mean, we really would let ye go if ye killed him, just like we said." He reached for the gun she held, the gun that they'd given her.

"Wait." said Liam. "Give her another moment."

With another laugh the bandit moved back and let her have that moment.

"Miss Sharon." Liam's voice snapped her attention back to him. "It's alright. You have to get back and they won't let you go until you do this."

"But I…" her voice trailed off as she took in the intent way he was keeping eye contact with her. Very slowly he raised his right shoulder and dropped it.

"It's going to be alright." he repeated never breaking eye-contact.

So she shot Liam.

The bandits let go of his arms and he fell to his knees in the mud of the road. There was blood seeping from his shoulder and he slowly looked from it to her, that faint smile still on his face. Then all expression slid away and he slumped over into the street.

A bandit prodded him with a toe. "Well, lookie at that. He's dead."

The bandits had attacked the carriage on its way back to the Rainsworth estate, killing the driver instantly almost at once. There were almost twenty of them, rough filthy men and unfortunately they had an illegal contractor among them who recognized the Pandora uniform Liam wore. Both she and Liam were pulled from the carriage before they could attempt to fight, Liam probably never had a chance to get a hand to the gun that he carried and she didn't want to call Eques on civilians until she had no choice.

The situation devolved quickly, the illegal contractor was the leader of the gang and his hatred of Pandora was shared by the rest of the group. They likely would have robbed the both of them and cut their throats if Liam hadn't protested that Sharon was his young niece who had nothing to with Pandora and was an innocent. She looked young enough to get away with it too, she was playing along with Liam, letting him put himself between her and the bandits and clutching at his sleeve.

In the same tone used for explaining to Xerxes that he really should do his paperwork Liam explained to the rough men that because his young niece had nothing to do with the bandit's wants they should let her leave -they could do as they wished with him as long as they let her leave.

This was met with a great amount of amusement from the bandits, but the leader appeared to give this actual thought, they'd already stripped both of any valuables they had already so they had no real profit from keeping her unless they planned to sell her. However that would require keeping her docile until a buyer could be found and from the thoughtful look on the bandit leader's face he didn't want to do through the trouble.

"Alright," he had said. "We'll let 'er go. But," he raised a meaty hand to halt any relieved reply this might have brought him. "But only after you do one thing for me."

"What?" Sharon had demanded, momentarily forgetting her role as a quiet niece.

"You do have a tongue in your 'ead then," the leader had chuckled. "I want you to kill 'im." his massive finger stabbed toward Liam.

"B-but, why?" she hadn't been able to help the stammer; she had glanced at Liam and saw his grim expression. From the slight frown had had she could tell he was turning something over in his mind.

"Cause he's Pandora." The bandit said. "And I 'ate Pandora. So, girl, ye want to live?" He had reached into a pocket and drew a pistol. "Ye going to 'ave to get your 'ands dirty."

Before either of them could have grabbed the gun and used it on the bandit leader two bandits grabbed Liam by either shoulder and dragged him a distance away. The leader pressed the pistol into her hand, taking up place behind her, where it would be difficult for her to fire the gun at him.

Slowly she aimed the pistol at Liam.

One of the bandits prodded the body with a toe. "Shock." he proclaimed. "It can kill a man affore blood loss even gets to it. I've seen it lotsa times."

The leader patted Sharon on the shoulder, and his hand was heavy against her skin. "Welcome to killin', girl. Ye done good."

"He's dead." she whispered, not able to take her eyes off the… the body. He was so… still. It was the first time she'd even seen Liam still, he was always moving, always doing something productive. And now he'd never- she dropped the gun, not caring if the bandits were angry at her for it, running for the… body.

Sharon was crying by the time she fell to her knees in the mud by the… reaching to him and when she felt how cold he was she sobbed in truth, the tears running down her face uncheck. She had killed him. She had killed him.

There was blood all over his shoulder and he was so still and so cold and- she had killed him. Great racking sobs shook her as she tried, in vain, to feel any breath on the fingers she held over his lips or find the beat of a pulse in his neck. Both were nowhere to find.

This was the man she had grown up with, played in hide-and-seek in the gardens with, drunk tea with, laughed over books with, played with Xerxes with, and shared a thousand little childhood memories with. And he was dead.

She might have stayed there, sobbing, for much longer had a hand not pulled her back from the body. It was attached to the bandit leader, who was glowering at her. "Ye want to leave, don't ye? Then get gone." He pushed her toward the carriage.

Stumbling on her heavy skirts she protested, "But, wait…" Xerxes would never believe what had happened unless, there was… "Please, can I have…" she gestured weakly to the body in the mud.

Glancing down at it the bandit leader snorted. "If ye can carry it then ye can get it." he said.

"You're not going to help me?" she demanded.

The laugh this time came from the entire gang and she realized that if she wanted something to bury she was going to have to take it herself. For a girl who had grown up with servants that attended to her every need this was a grim realization. All the same… she was going to have to take responsibility for what she had done.

Sharon knelt by the body again and tried to ignore the grief that would have her sobbing for a second time, unable to do anything. She grabbed the body under the arms and heaved. After a few more tugs she only was a few paces closer to the carriage, which stood with its door invitingly open, and the bandits were laughing again. She gritted her teeth and heaved for a second time.

This was so ridiculous, she had the body of a little girl and Liam was -had been- a full grown adult. Even if he'd been thin he'd also been tall and he was such heavy deadweight that her arms already ached. But what was she going to tell Xerxes if she came back to Pandora without Liam?

That thought, more than anything else, kept her dragging the body toward the carriage, inch by laborious inch. Her fingers, dug into the fabric of Liam's uniform, begged her to let go and flex the cramps out of the them, her arms were on fire as her muscles protested the exertion.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity of effort she had made her way to the carriage and was staring glumly at the high seats, panting for breath and wondering how she was going to get the body up there. For the moment she put the body down, climbed into the carriage herself and tried to reach down to Liam again. She caught the shoulders of his coat and hauled as hard as she could. The body came up out of the mud with a sucking sound, but didn't rise far enough for her to drag the body into the carriage.

She was about to let go in despair when a bandit apparently took pity on her and came forward to lift the body into the carriage, pushing it on top of her and sending them both to the carriage floor in a jumble of limbs. He slammed the carriage door and, from the sound of it, someone smacked one of the horses across the rump because it whinnied and bolted, dragging the other horses and the carriage with it.

The laughter of the bandits faded into the distance as Sharon struggled out from under the body and onto one of the seats. The horses were running wild, but that was fine because they were Rainsworth horses and they were all too likely heading for their home stables, as horses did when frightened. That would be fine as long as they eventually slowed their breakneck pace and didn't slam the carriage into anything. It was true she could have used Eques to get home even faster but at the moment she didn't feel up to commanding her chain.

She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered; her dress was covered in mud and blood and probably could never be saved. It was a shame, she liked this one.

Then she glanced down at the body on the carriage floor and felt a surge of guilt. How could she be worried over the state of her dress when Liam was…

Slowly a chain materialized, crowding the space of the carriage with long furred ears and a flowing, ragged cloak. Sharon's breath caught in her throat as she stared at the chain, normally this would have sent her into a panic, searching for an escape, since most chains were not friendly, but this chain gave off the air of such gentleness, such kindness that panic simply did not come. The chain leaned down and brushed one of those long ears across Liam's face, as if it wanted to simply wake him from a light sleep.

Liam's eyes snapped open.

If the horses hadn't already been running they would have bolted at the sound of Sharon's bloodcurdling scream.

Liam certainly winced, and tried to sit up and winced again, hand going to his bloody shoulder. The chain trilled in what was obviously a concerned manner. Almost absentmindedly Liam reached his good hand up to pat one of its ears.

"You died!" Sharon pointed an accusatory finger at him. "I saw you!"

"I'm sure you did." Liam said, rather like he wasn't even listening to what he was saying. He was tugging at his coat, inspecting the wound. With a sigh he undid a few buttons and slipped his arm gently out of the sleeve.

It was easier to tell now that the bullet wound was not serious, if anything it was just a very deep graze. Sharon's aim had not been good; she had merely shot him in the meat of his shoulder, taking a respectable amount of it off. A nasty wound certainly, and a bloody one too, but not a fatal one by any stretch of the imagination.

"… what was that?" Sharon asked, her voice small, scared.

This made Liam glance up. When he saw her expression and that her eyes were red from crying, he sighed and looked up at the chain. "I'm sorry, Hare, but this is a small space and there isn't room for all of us. Could you…" he paused as if he was listening to something. "Thank you." he said.

The chain dissipated, fading away and leaving the carriage feeling much larger than it had before.

"That was March Hare?" Sharon frowned, she'd never seem Liam's chain before, he had never taken it out before now. "Why did you let it out?"

Liam pushed himself up into the other carriage seat, wincing as the movement jostled his shoulder. "It's how its power works. It has to be the one to wake me."

"Power…" she trailed off as her mind began to fill in the blanks, then she scowled at Liam. "You said your March Hare just made you inconspicuous! You never told me it could make you look like you're dead."

"I couldn't." Liam had the grace to look abashed, his eyes on his hands in his lap. "I had orders not to."

All at once she was furious at him, so angry that she would have leapt on him and hit him with her fists if he wasn't hurt. She instead settled for grabbing him by the front of his uniform and shaking him. "You let me think I killed you!" she yelled at him. "What if I hadn't taken your body with me, you would have woken up around all those bandits and they would have killed you again! And I would still think I killed you! You- you horrible, horrible person! How could you do that to me?"

But even as she shook him and yelled she knew what his reasons were, knew he would have done anything to let her escape that situation alive, knew the sacrifice he had been willing to make for her. That made anger hard to sustain, especially when she finally ran out of words and stood, panting for breath in the jolting carriage and he just said, "I'm sorry, Miss Sharon."

That was when she fell back into her seat, starting crying again, promised to keep his secret, and told him that they'd get a doctor to look as his shoulder soon.

It was a sign of how easily things were going to go back to normal between them that Liam gave her a slight smile and said, "Thank you."

End